Cherry-Evans go join as rival club on big money after telling the Sea Eagles he wants out.
Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns reckons Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans is worth as much as $1.5 million per season and that his family will be central to his next move. Johns has singled out the cashed-up Roosters as the most likely landing spot for DCE, who revealed on Monday that this would be his final season with the Sea Eagles.
The bombshell announcement stunned the NRL world but reports have since emerged that DCE asked for a release from Manly more than 12 months ago, but that request was rejected by the club. Bulldogs supremo Phil Gould said he’d heard rumblings over the off-season that Cherry-Evans wanted out so this week’s events did not come as a shock to him.
While there are still many questions that remain unanswered about why DCE wants to leave, money and Manly’s initial reluctance to offer him what was deemed a suitable contract extension seem to be at the heart of it. The Sea Eagles have tried to change his mind by tabling a two-year, $1.4 million extension which DCE ‘respectfully’ declined.
That two-year deal would still only equate to $700,000 per season for a player Johns described as one of the NRL’s ‘top three’ halfbacks. And even though DCE is 36, the Manly veteran is playing some of the best footy of his career and a player of that calibre would normally command a salary of more than $1 million-a-season, which probably goes a long way to explaining why the Sea Eagles skipper wants to leave.
Andrew Johns says DCE is worth $1.5 million-a-season
Johns is adamant that DCE is worth a lot more than Manly are willing to offer and that his age should not come into the equation, considering his impressive form and exemplary injury history and durability. The Manly captain has only missed 20 games across his 15-year career and Johns says he could realistically play on until he’s 40, after comparing the halfback to Melbourne legend Cameron Smith, who retired at 37 straight after winning the 2020 grand final with the Storm.
Cherry-Evans is just so durable and the only person who really compares to him on that front is Cameron Smith,” Johns wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald. “I have no doubt he can play until he turns 40 if he wants to. He’s still in the NRL’s top three halfbacks and… With the player market at the moment, even at Cherry-Evans’ age, he is a $1.4 million to $1.5 million-a-season player.”
Daly Cherry-Evans tipped to stay in Sydney with family
It remains to be seen whether a rival club will be willing to offer that sort of money, but Johns believes DCE’s family will be central to his next move and has singled out the Roosters as favourites for his signature. The Manly skipper is settled on Sydney’s northern beaches with his wife and three girls, who all go to school in the area. And Johns reckons DCE won’t want to uproot his family, which rules out a return to Queensland.
He believes Cherry-Evans will almost certainly end up at another Sydney club and that the Roosters are favourites for a number of reasons. DCE’s manager Joe Wehbe also looks after Roosters captain James Tedesco and 2026 recruit Reece Robson, and the Tri Colours have plenty of salary cap space after the exodus of several big-name players last year.
Johns also points out that the Roosters and their billionaire chairman Nick Politis are one of the best clubs at setting up players for careers after footy. He says the DCE saga has many similarities to Cooper Cronk’s move from the Storm to the Roosters, that ultimately helped deliver two premierships for Trent Robinson’s side.
“The Roosters have got a war chest as a result of all the players who have left in the past year, and they’ve seen the Cooper Cronk model work perfectly when they signed him at the end of his career, delivering them two premierships in the process,” Johns added. “What the Roosters offer more than anyone else is around what his life looks like post-footy. Whether he wants to go into the media or elsewhere, the contacts the Roosters board have are the best in the game, and they’re a huge advantage in contract talks.”
